Wedding Planning|Wedding Planning & Wedding Advice

Answer these questions honestly and keep track of how many times you answer ‘no’.?

1. I have experience working with budgets (I can create one, track expenses, etc)

2. I am a financially responsible person (I can control my spending, separate my emotions from my decisions, and avoid impulse purchases)

3. I have a clear vision for my ceremony and reception (how it will look, what will take place). If not, I know I am able to see the ‘big picture’ and I’ll be able to pull all of the aspects of the event together to create a cohesive theme and style?

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Planning Your Perfect Wedding Together

You’ve said “Yes!” when he got on one knee and popped the “Big” question and now you have the extraordinary but exciting job of planning for your wedding and becoming man and wife.

Now if anyone has ever told you this is easy, they are either lying or have never been married!
Fortunately, you can have a perfect wedding day no matter what your budget and resources available by planning and carefully preparing for your wedding day. Becoming engaged is relatively simple but planning and executing your wedding is the first real task confronting many couples.

The first step is to realistically budget for your wedding and this means deciding what you are going to actually include. No-one except the super-rich can have everything so this is a true test of your commitment to one another and how well you are able to compromise with each other.

Establishing the parameters of your wedding day is the part of this whole process where conflict is most likely to emerge; one side may insist on Great Aunt Ada coming to the wedding because they will get upset if not invited, or, you just simply must have a horse drawn carriage to take you away from the magnificent traditional church and the reception simply must take place at the most expensive venue in town!

Get used to the idea right now; unless you have unlimited pots of money you are going to have to give in on some things and accept others you do not like. This is about planning one day which leads to the rest of your life together and everyday together will require commitment and compromise.

Once you have established a budget, you are going to have to finance the cost of your wedding. The traditional idea that the bride’s parents will meet the bulk of the cost of your wedding is no longer a truism for couples getting married today. The sheer cost of getting married can be enormous and not everyone is in the fortunate position of having mom and dad able to write a large check. Today, it is more common for both side’s parents to contribute if they are going to help out financially and it is also even more common for the bride and groom to pay for the bulk of the wedding themselves.

The sooner you establish a budget and agree how you will finance it the less stress you are both likely to experience down the road. Saving for your wedding together is a good idea; it establishes good habits for you to have together as a married couple and also acts to make the bond between you even greater. More than this, the more money you are able to spend which you have accumulated rather than putting the bill on your credit card or taking out a loan, the more money you are going to have to start your married life together.

Starting married life in debt is not a good start – more marriages end in divorce because of financial pressures than for any other reason, so the less debt you take on from the start the more likely you will both have a successful marriage and long life together.

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Getting engaged is definitely the most memorable moments in one’s life! The anticipation of starting a new journey of love and commitment can be very exciting and at the same overwhelming.  Today’s brides want their weddings to be organized much in advance of the D day, so the wedding planning journey doesn’t seem like a roller coaster ride with scary twists and turns and keeps the ‘Bridezilla moments’ at bay. There’s a reason why the wedding planning industry has always been booming despite the economic conditions. The bottom-line is if you don’t have a strategy, your wedding will be bust.  A wedding plan isn’t enough.  A good wedding planner isn’t enough.  In the end, the question is, do you have a wedding strategy that combines the best of everything and most importantly will that strategy work? We don’t know what your wedding strategy is, but we’ve got some tips that we think will help:

Decide on a Wedding Budget: This is one of the most important decisions that you and your partner need to make before digging deep into any other wedding related details. Decide a weekend, or take a day off (yes! It’s that important) to talk about the finances that you can afford to invest in your wedding.

Wedding Planner: It definitely helps to have a professional wedding planner, who will plan your wedding to a T, but wedding planners can be expensive and not everyone can have a Kim Kardashian wedding budget. Don’t feel disappointed if you cannot afford a wedding planner, you can always hire a wedding consultant that works by the hour. This helps you to keep your budget within limits and allows you to do most of the planning, at the same time provides a more experienced, outsider’s perspective for some of the more difficult decisions.

Be a Tech Savvy Planner: Today’s digital age offers a multitude of avenues to plan your wedding systematically. Get on your computer, go online and explore wedding planning and management tools on websites like mywedding.com and Google’s free wedding tools, which will help you to simplify your wedding preparation. These free online tools help you to easily  create your priority lists, checklists, wedding registry, offer rsvp tools to keep a track of your guests, build wedding websites, send out announcements and much more. The best part of keeping all your wedding related information online is that there is never a fear of it getting lost and you can access it anytime you want.

Set the Date: This may not seem the most important decision at the onset, but make sure that you finalize your wedding date in the earlier phases of your wedding planning. Many other important aspects of your wedding -like the availability of your dream venue and the presence of your near & dear ones on your special day, will rely on this one decision,

Send out Wedding Invitations:  Your wedding invitation sets the tone of your wedding. Work with a designer who specializes in designing wedding invitations and can help you to create an invitation that has a personal touch. To save on your wedding costs place an order for your invitations when your wedding guest list is final. Don’t order the exact number of invites you need, get 25-percent extra. Reordering more invites at a later time can prove to be pricey. Make sure to order extra envelopes to cover up for any errors that may occur while printing the details of your guests.

To add a personal touch, you can also send elegant and petite personalized gifts along with the invitations to your close friends and family.

Choose a Theme: The wedding theme you choose will say so much about you as a couple. Sit down with your fiancé and start brainstorming about the tone of your day. How do you go about deciding on a theme for your wedding? The sky’s the limit! Be creative and base your theme on your favorite vacation spot, colors, movies, hobbies, or fashion eras. Work with a reputable decorator and a florist to transform your wedding venue into a sacred place of your dreams

Choose the Venue: Your wedding venue needs to be much more than a breathtaking ambience. While finalizing on the venue, you need to take into account satisfactory seating association for your guests, sufficient space for catering & entertainment, parking amenities, and separate areas for the civil ceremony and reception.

Caterer Selection Q&A:  Food and drinks will play an important role at your wedding. Let’s face it: everyone talks about the food! It’s best to interview a few reputable caterers before making a final call. Some of the questions that you may want to ask the caterer to make a better decision are:

• What range of menu options and courses can you offer for my budget?
  • Who will oversee the catering staff? How many servers do you typically assign for a wedding event?
  • What is the per-person cost?
  • Do you provide a wedding cake?
  • Do you cater to special or vegetarian meal requirements?
  • Do you provide bartenders?
  • Do you require a minimum or maximum number of guests?
  • Will you provide food for the photographer, videographer, or musicians?
  • What is the payment structure and what is your refund or cancellation policy?
  • Are gratuities included in the total price? In addition to factored gratuities, will staff expect a cash tip?
  • When does the menu need to be finalized?
  • When do you require the final head count?
  • Do you offer menu tastings?
  • Can you provide references and how much experience do they have with weddings?

Get that Perfect Wedding Gown: Choosing that perfect wedding dress which will make you look like million bucks is one of the biggest decisions you will face as the D day approaches. Be on a lookout for that perfect dress the moment your wedding date is fixed. Give yourself plenty of time before your wedding to select your dress. Bridal salons say six months before the wedding is ideal, to allow time for ordering and alterations.  If you have budget constraints, remember that the most expensive kind of dress is not necessarily the best kind. Be alert about wedding sales and explore wedding thrift stores. Don’t rule out the possibility of finding your perfect wedding dress hundreds of dollars cheaper than the ones available in expensive boutiques and branded stores. On your wedding day, you’ll want to look great, but you’ll also want to be comfortable. Choose a dress that suits your body type, makes you feel confident and beautiful, and brings out the best in you!

Pick a Cake: Choosing your wedding cake can get overwhelming due to the vast array of choices and so many talented cake decorators out there. Here are a few things to keep in mind while choosing your cake:

• Your wedding cake should taste as good as it looks, so make sure the samples of the cake taste heavenly before placing the actual order.
• Choose a cake decorator who is conveniently located from your wedding venue. Make sure to check the delivery arrangements.
• When you go along for your cake consultation, take as many ideas along with you as possible like pictures of wedding cakes from magazines or prints from the cakes images that you found online. Brainstorm with the decorator to design a cake that fits within your budget and blends with your wedding theme.

Select Wedding Rings: This can be a real stress-buster during your wedding planning! You can set aside a day when the weather is pleasant and sun is shining. Take a break from the wedding hustle and dedicate one full day for ring shopping. You can also be creative by exploring some elegant designs online and getting your rings custom-made from a jeweler.

Decide on your Wedding Photographer: Consider a professional photographer for your special day. Get references from your friends & family and don’t hesitate to be choosy while making this decision. Your wedding photographs and videos should be able to offer you and your partner, memories of a lifetime!

And amidst all the planning rush, don’t forget to have fun! Make your sweetheart feel special by gifting him an adorable personalized wedding gift, as a token of appreciation for being a fantastic companion through the exciting and at times stressful wedding planning journey.

Related articles

• Why Hire a Certified Wedding Planner (myweddingideas.net)
• Wedding Cake Decisions Buttercream versus Fondant Frosting and Icing (londonweddingdresses.com)
• Wedding Gift Woes: What to Give? (frommyexperience.com)
• Interviewing your wedding planner / event planner (myweddingideas.net)